Skimmer Vandalised in Hammersmith Park

Vandalised Skimmer

Sometimes you have to feel a bit sorry for our local council, and for everyone who works hard to improve our parks.

For many years, John Gordon-Smith and other volunteers at the Friends of the Japanese Garden in Hammersmith Park have been lobbying our Council to install a skimmer to clean up the duck weed in the Japanese Garden.  After years of waiting, we finally got the skimmer, which was then almost immediately vandalised.

It isn't clear why anyone would want to smash up the skimmer. But someone, for whatever reason, decided it would be a good plan.

Shepherd's Bush Front Line in the Vaccine Wars

Public protest on the Goldhawk Rd

Shepherd's Bush became an unlikely front line in the arguments over Corona virus, lockdown, vaccination, and public liberty today. 

How far has Lockdown infringed on our civil liberties? Too far, said today's protestors who turned Shepherd's Bush into a parking lot this afternoon.

Hammersmith Park Tennis Courts Locked

Why lock the courts?

Sometimes our local council moves in mysterious ways.  On Sunday I went to the tennis courts in Hammersmith Park to play with my children, only to discover the courts locked.  

Two basketball players were also there, but none of us could get in.  Not to worry, I said, let's crawl in through the hole in the fence at the back.  But no luck; the council - in its wisdom and efficiency - has blocked up the hole. 

The two basketball players were undeterred; they simply climbed over the fence, while my kids and I had to find somewhere else to hit a ball. 

But how long will it be, I wondered, before someone makes a new hole in the fence? 

1,000 Parking Tickets a Week Issued in Shepherds Bush

Macfarlane Rd - Ticket Hotspot

Every week, around 1,000 Parking Tickets are issued in Shepherds Bush.  Each year nearly 49,000 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) are issued by Hammersmith & Fulham Council in our neighbourhood, W12.

Tuhin Reynolds-Imam has done extensive research to find out exactly who is getting parking tickets, and where.  

To find out the top places in The Bush to get a ticket (and how to avoid them), see the detailed results below, with data taken from Tuhin's website proviser.com.

Parking Charges Double in LBHF

Our local council, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, have recently almost doubled the cost of parking in our Borough.  Parking charges in the area have risen from around £2.80 an hour to around £5.00 per hour.  

This is a pretty steep increase.  Imagine a family taking their kids to the park; it would cost £15 just to park the family car for three hours.  

Is that affordable for many people? And is it proportionate to the actual cost of administering parking facilities?  

What this feels like is a stealth tax - and a pretty big one at that.